The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-12-28
Science Against Alcohol.

The following are some Of the recent testi-
monies against alcohol, collated by the Irish
Temperance League Journal from the "Pro-
eeedings of the Society for the Study OF Inc
briefly"
Quacks and philanthropists had sought for
and had proclaimed that they had found
magic pOtions to charm away inebriety. All
these nostrums, from alcoholic extract of
frog to the "bark cure" had been found use.
less. There was no royal road to temper
ance. There were certain indications Of
sound treatment. The first was the uncon-
ditional withdrawal of the poison, which
might be immediate with alcohol, choral,
ether and chloroform. Kerr, m. d.
The drinking parent bsgets a child with
degenerated type of organization, rendering
the latter liable to inebriety, as to conyul-
sions or imbecility. Therefore, if such a
congenitally weak child drinks at all he can
not resist the narcotic power of alcohol While
inebriety is primarily the result Of voluntary
drinking in most cases, there being some con-
troll in the earlier stages, if persisted in from
year to year until permanent tissue changes
are established, the inebriate is no longer
able to exercise self control-M s. Daris,
". D.
The families Of Incorporate parents are the
recruiting ground for asylums the children,
if not idiots or epilectics, are liable to grow
up with querulous, explosive tempers, feeble,
self-guiding powers, weak in temptation, un-
stable. self-ndulgent, vicious and hysterical.
-C. H. Hughes, N. D.
Fifty per cent Of the idiots and imbeciles
Of great cities are the children Of notorious
drunkards, and the majority Of the children
of constitutional drunkards are weak in soma
way or other. We may therefore safely as
sumo that science recognizes throughout the
world the abuse Of alcohol, not only as the
greatest and most direful cause Of insanity
known to the race, but that it recognizes
alcoholism in its various forms as distinct
type of insanity.-Clnrk Bell, President
Medico-Legal Society, NeW York.
Alcohol is a source of terrible moral and
physical deterioration. The disease Of ine-
briefly is transmitted hereditarily, causing
insanity, epilepsy and idiocy, or proclivity
to crime.-E C. Mann, N. d.
Alcohol is no respector of tissue, though it
is more deadly in effect on some structures
than on Others. 1t is specially injurious to the
cerebro-spinal centres. Epilepsy is a neurosis
due to alcohol. About QUE in fourteen in
several hundred cases were due to alcohol as
the exciting cause.-Le,uis D. Mason, H. d.
Alcoholism in Belgium has augmented with
frightful rapidity and calls for immediate
and thorough action. The alcoholized man
has lost his will, is no longer free and no more
responsible Pstitham, Liege.
A few glasses Of an intoxicant may promote
to hasty blow, and few more to murder
of q kind and compassionate host. Truly
arc we told in Proverbs iv. II Of the swine
of violence" How can this latent homicidal
and suicidal tendency be prevented from
Development Only by total abstinence at
all times from all intoxicants Surgeon
Major Prin0le, NJ D.
II have observed in some children born
after parental addiction to drink, tendency
to drunkenness easily provoked by small
doses OF an intoxicant. In children Of the
same parentage, before the intemperance
habit had begun, have seen no such ten
tency Il 4 = The only safety for those born
of inebriate parents or with inebriate ten.
denotes is total-abstinence from all forms OF
intoxicating liquors. Carpenter, Al.
D., NJ r. c. s.
Americans and Engishmen are both far
more susceptible to narcotic action. from
their increasing nervous tension. The in
heritor Of the homeopathic constitution, be-
fore the actual development Of the disease of
inebriety. generally exhibits phenomena of
nervous exhaustion, etc. Moderate drinking
of alcohol may induce these symptoms
through brain failure, irresolution, and inde-
cision.-E. C. Mann. d. D.